hi guys,

my girls are 8 weeks old - 3 weeks corrected. And im lost trying to work out the feeds for them - Addy drinks 80 - 140 mls every feed, and Tilly eats any where from 50 - 140 mls, they usually wake at the same time, but if not, i wake the one whos still sleeping.

But Latley Tilly is draining every second feed, or atleast 120 mls of every second feed and really fussing over the other feed - i feel like im trying to force feed her and shes getting really p*ssed at me and wont have a bar off it.

she is the smaller twin by like 300-500 grams and it really worries me that she doesnt drink as much as her sister.

they feed every four hours - some times longer - but trust me when i say that if i try to feed them when they arent hungry they wont have a bar of it, it leaves them crying and angry and me in tears wondering what the hell im doing wrong?! even at four hours when tilly should be hungry she wont eat

also im confused about corrected age, do i got by how much they need to drink by corrected age or age? i just hope they are getting enough, but wonder what to do if they arent and i cant force it into them?!

i think its really begining to stress me out!

hmm

How many weeks were they when they were born. If born after 36 weeks or even really after 34 weeks they don't need to have their ages corrected. Also, the amount taken may vary from feed to feed. Go by what they take not what the recommendation is on the back of a can (if you are formula feeding). If they are finishing a quantity easily, up the quantity offered by 20ml and stay with that quantity until they start finishing that easily too.

Does the hospital where you had them have a postnatal clinic you can pop back to to get their weight checked and some feeding advice? Otherwise, make an appointment with your local Child and Youth Health Office that way you can keep an eye on their growth so if their intake doesn't appear to be adequate, you can see whether their weight gain is adequate based on what they are having. You will also be able to get some advice from perhaps the Multiple Birth Association in your state.

Sorry, hope this helps a little.

PS If waking them four hourly isn't working with them not being hungry, perhaps if their feed is a larger one, leave them for 5 hours before waking them. If is isn't such a great volume, then try the four hourly feed.

thanks fairy magic! the girls were born at 34 weeks but took to suck feeds like a dream, the issues have only developed over the last week.

we saw the MCHN last week and they weight gains were huge, and we see her again next week, so i guess we will see if the feeding issue has caused any problems, gosh its hard trying to work it all out isnt it?!

our little girl was like yours and refused feeds. I struggled too with it all - esp since mine was in the bottom 3rd pecentile for weight gain. She is nearly 8 months old and still in some newborn clothes! If they are putting on weight and sleeping ok (for newborns ) then i wouldnt worry. You can actually make it worse by trying to wage a battle with them - they can refuse completely rather than just drinking a little. I would give my little girl 40 minutes to finish her feed and then make her wait the 4 hours till the next feed. I would usually offer her the feed on waking. if she stopped i would give her a little break, put her on the floor for a play and then go back after say 10 mins. She still isnt the greatest feeder but i have learned to live with the fact she just doesnt drink much milk. Plus you have to remember they are twins but they are individuals - you can expect them to do everything the same. Also what they say on the tin isnt always accurate....bottles should be 150mls per kilo over 24 hours....so what they dont drink in one feed they can make up in the next. I mean we dont always eat the same amount at every meal. Oh and we made up a jug o formula once a day....it makes it easier to top the bottles up and you get less wastage too.

HTH

It's been nearly 5 years (OMG!!!!!) since my twins were newborns. I also had a little one, and a big one (2.30kg and 2.99kg born), and they were on different amounts for their bottles. Neither had great appetites, and drank less than the recommended amount. And go by the amount of formula required for the baby's weight, not the age recommendation on the back of the tin. Check with your health nurse for the amount.

As PP said, if your bubs are putting on sufficient weight, are sleeping, and seem happy, then don't stress about them not finishing their bottle. I don't think mine EVER finished a full bottle! They are happy, healthy, very slim built almost 5 year olds now. Due to their slim build, they just didn't need to eat/drink as much as other babies.

Hope that helps!

My paed told me to ignore the back of the tin (and all the other "guidelines" people give you) and just give them however much (or little) they want at each feed. So long as their weight gain is okay it is perfectly fine for them to have 150ml at one feed but only 80ml at the next. It IS incredibly stressful when you are so new at this and they are so scarily small and you are freaking out about every last ml that you can get into them. Man, I used to do my own head in going round and round in circles about it in my thoughts. When she drains the 120ml, see if she'll take a bit more. If she fusses at other feeds, give her a 20 min break and try again but if she still fusses then leave her be. It would be a bigger worry if she was fussing over all feeds or not gaining weight.

If they are consistently putting on weight and seem contended, do not stress about what the back of the can says re: mls.

When my twins went onto a bottle, I would just be guided by them as to how much they wanted. If they did not want anymore, I left it at that. One time I was stressing just like you and what I did was work out an average of what each twin drank over 2 days. Then I divided it up by the amount of feeds. This let me know how many mls to give each one. My bigger boy had one more bottle a day than his brother.

I am probably going to go against what many multiple mums advocate. When my twins came home I had to end up giving them different gaps between feeds.
DD was my smaller twin who had the most problems with feeding, fatigue, weight gain and was officially diagnosed as Failing to Thrive at a very young age. Now she needed feeding small amount more often so she was on smaller feeds 3 hourly as she could not cope with bigger volumes nor last to four hours.

DS was on Four hourly feeds and as he was a little piglet who too Bottles of EBM with gusto he would easily have a larger feed and if you tried to feed him any earlier than the 4 hours he would then be very unhappy as his reflux would play up. So you can imagine the "fun" it was in the early days. In the end DH and I slept in different rooms each with one bub in there with us and overnight would only feed the child in with us unless the other was stirring at the end of siblings feed. We also took it in turns of who had each child as DD was up a few times a night..

I also let them guide me when they were older.

With my DS2 who is 8 mths we found what suited him was 4.5 hrs... up from 3.5.... perhaps feeding Tilly first one feed then feeding her second the next time around. It may be that extra 30 or so mins may be all the extra time between feeds she needs.

Good luck. Remember you will get there. if is any help at all neither of my twins ever had the same size bottle feeds until they were about 12 mths corrected. DD was always on much smaller feeds than her brother as that was all she could physically handle due to issues we now know about and had remidied at age 2 (amazing how hard it can be to feed when you have footballs instead of tonsils lol)